A first time manager’s near-death experience…
A small confession before I begin my sordid tale… I am a Human Resources professional, have been coaching managers on teaming, leadership, effective management and such else, since I can remember. So when I took on the mantle of a manager for a highly motivated, ambitious, driven and intelligent team of management graduates with experience ranging from 3-6 years, more than a few years back, I didn’t really categorise it as a crisis. And you know… sometimes we HR people believe that because we have read about it, it somehow must mean that we can DO it… Well… I began where most poor lost first time manager souls begin : i.e. by introspecting about our own managers. Native (or maybe naïve) intelligence tells us that if we can avoid the pitfalls of our previous managers and go with things that we desire in a manager , we should be ok. There is a sense of false security … till of course, you crash and burn! I’ve always wondered about the abundance of literature on the ‘boss-subordinate’ r...